At the intersections…

For the runner, busy roads often present unwanted obstacles… street signs, light posts, uneven pavement, narrow sidewalks, and stop lights…

If you don’t run into the street sign first, you’re sure to be halted by the stop light. It seems the little man appears just long enough to play his part before there’s the inevitable countdown to the big red hand and the “STOP” that dictates your pace…

One day during my usual run, I began to ponder intersections… While waiting to cross, sometimes I’ve encountered a pedestrian on her way home from the grocery store… The avid walker, taking Fido out for his daily stroll… Or the panhandler, clutching his cardboard sign in hopes I’d drop a copper or two into his cup…

It’s at the intersection that our paths cross, our lives meet, connection occurs… Do I greet the shopper with comments about my favorite cuisine? Reach out to pet the mutt before we both go on our way? Engage with the hobo, offering a kind word and a Lincoln?

As soon as our paths cross, our stories intertwine. It’s no longer just my path… It’s no longer my road… It’s no longer my story…

So often, it’s easy to think of our lives as our own… As if in our individualistic society, we live independently of one another… That the decisions we make are inconsequential to others because they are OURS… To do this or that matters only so much as it matters to us… to me…

But as in virtual reality, that is only fantasy…

In reflecting on my own life, I have seen how at the intersection, people have entered my life that have made all the difference… They have shaped who I am… They have given me courage to endure… They have inspired me to be my best self… They have challenged me to grow… They have opened my eyes…

And so, as I live my life, I consider my ways… The words I speak, the activities in which I engage, the things I choose to do and choose to skip, it all matters… Not only to me, but also to others… So, let us take a moment’s pause at our intersections…

pc: Sarah Coffey, St. Louis, Missouri

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